June 29, 2015

University of California, San Diego electrical engineers have invented a technology that could allow between a two- and fourfold increase in data transmission capacity for the backbone of Internet, cable, wireless, and landline networks over long distances, while reducing cost and latency (delay).

The new system addresses a problem known as the “Kerr effect”: distortion of optical signals that travel on optical fibers over distances, requiring the… read more

June 29, 2015

Michigan State University (MSU) researchers have developed a “photo-doping” process by shooting an ultrafast laser pulse into a semiconductor* material — rapidly changing its properties as if it had been chemically “doped.”

Changing the electrical properties of semiconductors formerly required a complex, expensive process of adding different dopants, or trace chemical impurities.

The new research could lead to development of next-generation electronic materials and even optically controlled… read more

June 29, 2015

The “organic electronic biomimetic neuron” combines a biosensor and ion pump. It senses a chemical change in one dish and translates it into an electrical/ionic signal that travels along an “axon” to a “synapse” and releases chemical signals… read more

June 26, 2015

D-Wave Systems has broken the quantum computing 1000 qubit barrier, developing a processor about double the size of D-Wave’s previous generation, and far exceeding the number of qubits ever developed by D-Wave or any other quantum effort, the announcement said.

It will allow “significantly more complex computational problems to be solved than was possible on any previous quantum computer.”

At 1000 qubits, the new processor considers 21000 possibilities… read more

June 26, 2015

Stanford University researchers have stretched an atomically thin Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) semiconductor crystal to achieve a variable bandgap (defined as the amount of energy it takes to move an electron in a material).

That could lead to solar cells that absorb more energy from the sun by being sensitive to a broader spectrum of light, and could also find applications in next-generation optoelectronics.

Could this material be used as an interface for your future cell phone?

June 26, 2015

Researchers from North Carolina State University (NC State) have created stretchable, transparent conductors based on a “nano-accordion” design inspired by springs.

Why is this important?

Imagine a material that is a flexible, stretchable, and transparent. So it could be attached to human or robot skin (or woven into clothing) for use as a wearable, stretchable, touch-sensitive smartphone display, for example, or used as a… read more

June 25, 2015

Purdue researchers have created a new implantable drug-delivery system using nanowires that can be wirelessly controlled. The nanowires respond to an electromagnetic field generated by a separate device, which can be used to control the release of a preloaded drug.

The system eliminates the tubes and wires required by other implantable devices that can lead to infection and other complications, said team leader Richard Borgens,… read more

June 25, 2015

Scientists at the HZB Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics in Berlin have succeeded in precisely measuring and controlling the thickness of an organic compound that has been bound to a graphene layer. This could enable graphene to be used as a sensitive detector for biological molecules in the future.

It has long been known that graphene is useful for detecting traces of organic molecules, because the… read more

June 25, 2015

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering have taken a crucial step toward nuclear spintronic technologies that use the “spin” — or magnetization — of atomic nuclei to store and process information. The new technologies could be used for ultra-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, advanced gyroscopes, and quantum computers.

The researchers used infrared light to make nuclear spins line themselves up in a consistent,… read more

June 24, 2015

Researchers at MIT and spinoff company 24M have developed an advanced manufacturing approach for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The researchers claim the new process could cut the manufacturing and materials cost in half compared to existing lithium-ion batteries, while also improving their performance, making them easier to recycle as well as flexible and resistant to damage.

June 24, 2015

Using a telepresence system developed at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL ), 19 people — including nine quadriplegics — were able to remotely control a robot located in an EPFL university lab in Switzerland.

Patients using Argus II had improved visual function and quality of life

June 24, 2015

Three-year clinical trial results of the Argus II retinal implant (“bionic eye”) have found that the device restored some visual function and quality of life for 30 people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease. The findings, published in an open-access paper in the journal Ophthalmology, also showed long-term efficacy, safety and reliability for the device.

Retinitis pigmentosa is an incurable disease that affects about 1… read more

Fifty chemicals the public is exposed to on a daily basis may trigger cancer when combined, according to new research by global task force of 174 scientists

June 23, 2015

A global task force of 174 scientists from leading research centers in 28 countries has studied the link between mixtures of commonly encountered chemicals and the development of cancer. The open-access study selected 85 chemicals not considered carcinogenic to humans and found 50 of them actually supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposures found in the environment today.

An inexpensive renewable source of clean-burning hydrogen fuel for transportation and industry

June 23, 2015

In an engineering first, Stanford University scientists have invented a low-cost water splitter that uses a single catalyst to produce both hydrogen and oxygen gas 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The researchers believe that the device, described in an open-access study published today (June 23) in Nature Communications, could provide a renewable source of clean-burning hydrogen fuel for transportation and industry.